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PIB – September 20 , 2019

GS- 2nd  Paper

Topic- Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies.

GST Council

Context

The GST Council, in its 37th meeting in Goa, recommended the new Law & Procedure on GST Rate.

What is GST?

  • Goods and Services Tax (GST) is a comprehensive indirect tax on manufacture, sale, and consumption of goods and services throughout India.
  • GST has been established by the 101st Constitutional Amendment Act.
  • It is “One Nation One Tax” to make India a unified market.
  • It is an indirect tax for the whole country.
  • GST will be levied on supply of goods or services or both at each stage of supply chain starting from manufacture or import and till the last retail level.
  • The final consumer will pay only his part of the tax and not the entire supply chain which was the case earlier.
  • GST is proposed to be a dual levy where the Central Government will levy and collect Central GST (CGST) and the State will levy and collect State GST (SGST) on intra-state supply of goods or services.
  • The Centre will also levy and collect Integrated GST (IGST) on inter-state supply of goods or services.
  • It is calculated only in the “Value addition” at any stage of a goods or services.
  • Thus GST is a unifier that is going to integrate various taxes being levied by the Centre and the State at present and provide a platform for forging an economic union of the country.

Advantages of GST

Advantages for the government

  • Will help to create a unified common national market for India, giving a boost to foreign investment and “Make in India” campaign;
  • Will mitigate cascading of taxes as Input Tax Credit will be available across goods and services at every stage of supply;
  • Harmonization of laws, procedures and rates of tax between Centre and States and across States;
  • Improved environment for compliance as all returns are to be filed online, input credits to be verified online, encouraging more paper trail of transactions at each level of supply chain;
  • Similar uniform SGST and IGST rates will reduce the incentive for evasion by eliminating rate arbitrage between neighbouring States and that between intra and inter-state sales;
  • Common procedures for registration of taxpayers, refund of taxes, uniform formats of tax return, common tax base, common system of classification of goods and services will lend greater certainty to taxation system;
  • Greater use of IT will reduce human interface between the taxpayer and the tax administration, which will go a long way in reducing corruption;
  • It will boost export and manufacturing activity, generate more employment and thus increase GDP with gainful employment leading to substantive economic growth;
  • Ultimately it will help in poverty eradication by generating more employment and more financial resources.

Advantages to Consumers

  • Final price of goods is expected to be transparent due to seamless flow of input tax credit between the manufacturer, retailer and service supplier;
  • Reduction in prices of commodities and goods in long run due to reduction in cascading impact of taxation;
  • Relatively large segment of small retailers will be either exempted from tax or will suffer very low tax rates under a compounding scheme – purchases from such entities will cost less for the consumers;
  • Poverty eradication by generating more employment and more financial resources.

Advantages to States

  • Expansion of the tax base as they will be able to tax the entire supply chain from manufacturing to retail;
  • Power to tax services, which was hitherto with the Central Government only, will boost revenue and give States access to the fastest growing sector of the economy;
  • GST being destination based consumption tax will favour consuming States; Improve the overall investment climate in the country which will naturally benefit the development in the States;
  • Largely uniform SGST and IGST rates will reduce the incentive for evasion by eliminating rate arbitrage between neighbouring States and that between intra and inter-state sales;
  • Improved Compliance levels of the tax payers will contribute greatly in improving the revenue collection of the States.

About GST Council

Goods & Services Tax Council is a constitutional body for making recommendations to the Union and State Government on issues related to Goods and Service Tax.

The GST Council is chaired by the Union Finance Minister and other members are the Union State Minister of Revenue or Finance and Ministers in-charge of Finance or Taxation of all the States.

Composition

The GST Council which will be a joint forum of the Centre and the States.

It will consist of-

  • Union Finance Minister – Chairperson;
  • Union Minister of State in charge of Revenue or Finance – Member;
  • Minister in charge of Finance or Taxation or any other
  • Minister nominated by each State Government – Members.

Mandate of GST Council

GST Council shall make recommendations to the Union and the States on-

  • the taxes, cesses and surcharges levied by the Union, the States and the local bodies which may be subsumed in the goods and services tax;
  • the goods and services that may be subjected to, or exempted from the goods and services tax;
  • model Goods and Services Tax Laws, principles of levy, apportionment of Goods and Services Tax levied on supplies in the course of inter-State trade or commerce under article 269A and the principles that govern the place of supply;
  • the threshold limit of turnover below which goods and services may be exempted from goods and services tax;
  • the rates including floor rates with bands of goods and services tax;
  • any special rate or rates for a specified period, to raise additional resources during any natural calamity or disaster;
  • special provision with respect to the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand;
  • It shall recommend the date on which the goods and services tax be levied on petroleum crude, high speed diesel, motor spirit (commonly known as petrol), natural gas and aviation turbine fuel.
  • While discharging the functions conferred by this article, the Goods and Services Tax Council shall be guided by the need for a harmonized structure of goods and services tax and for the development of a harmonized national market for goods and services.
  • One-half of the total number of Members of the Goods and Services Tax Council shall constitute the quorum at its meetings.
  • The Goods and Services Tax Council shall determine the procedure in the performance of its functions.

GS-3rd Paper

Topics- Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.

Emergency Response Support System (ERSS- Dial 112)

Context

  • Union Minister for Home Affairs, launched three citizen centric services of the Chandigarh Police, in Chandigarh.
  • The services include the Emergency Response Support System (ERSS – Dial 112), ‘E-Beat Book’ System and the ‘E-Saathi App’.

Emergency Response Support System

  • ERSS is one of the key projects of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs under Nirbhaya Fund.
  • It has been designed to play a pivotal role in mitigation or preventing escalation of crime, especially against women and children.
  • ERSS provides a single emergency number (112), computer aided dispatch of field resources to the location of distress.
  • The ‘Dial 112’ emergency response service is an initiative to strengthen proactive community policing.
  • The ‘Dial 112’ will subsume
  1. The Emergency Number for Road Accidents (1073),
  2. Women Helpline (1091, 181),
  3. Child Help Line (1098)

E-Beat Book

  • The ‘E-Beat Book’ is a web and mobile based application which will ease the collection, updation and analysis of the information related to crime and criminals in a real time.
  • The E-Beat Book would be linked with Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS), which would help in a real time updation of crime/criminal data.
  • The citizen can directly approach the‘Atal Sehbhagita Kendra’ for redressal of their grievances and can render their suggestions too.

E-Saathi

  • The ‘E-Saathi’ App would help the general public, including senior citizens, to remain in touch with the police and also give suggestions to facilitate participative community policing (‘Your Police at Your Doorstep’ initiative).
  • The beat officer would be able to provide services like passport verification, tenant verification, servant verification, character certification etc. at a click of a button through the app,

Significance

  • These valuable public services would effectively reduce the response time of police to address the distress calls of the public and strengthen the police-public interface endeavour of community policing.

For Prelims-

Global Goalkeepers Goals Award 2019

Context

Global Goalkeepers Goals Award 2019 conferred to Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.

Highlights

  • Global Goalkeepers Goals Awards are given by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
  • The third annual Goalkeepers event is being hosted in New York City on September 24 and 25.
  • This year, Goalkeepers will focus on the challenge of fighting global inequality to ensure no one is left behind.
  • Every year, Goalkeepers presents the annual Global Goals Awards.
  • These Awards tell the extraordinary stories of remarkable individuals taking action to bring the Global Goals to life and help achieve them by 2030.

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